Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club celebrates its Centennial year
Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club celebrates its Centennial this year, and the 100th year of polo at the club will feature many returning teams, some newcomers, and for the first time ever the Silver Cup will be played at SBPRC.
The Silver Cup, which was created in 1900 and is the oldest of the American polo trophies, started out as the USPA Twenty Goal Tournament. The USPA Twenty Goal Tournament was hosted by the Milwuakee Polo Club from 1949-1973. As the tournament relocated to Willow Bend Polo Club of Dallas in 1974 the name was changed. For the next 22 years the Silver Cup was played in the Southwest circuit, moving from Dallas to Retama Polo Center in San Antonio to Broadacres Polo club in Norman Oklahoma and finally to the Houston Polo Club. In 2007 the Silver Cup moved again to New Bridge Polo Club in Aiken South Carolina. After 4 years the tournament relocated to its new home with SBPRC, giving SBPRC a prestigious 20 goal tournament schedule starting with the Robert Skene Cup, Silver Cup, USPA Lucchese America Cup, and Bombardier Pacific Coast Open.
For the 20 goal season in July and August, SBPRC welcomes back Lucchese, defending champion of the Skene, America Cup and PCO. 10 goaler Adolfo Cambiaso will be playing again with Lucchese team owner John Muse. The 2009 PCO champions Grants Farm (Andy Busch, Jeff Hall, Nic Roldan) and 2008 PCO Champion Audi will also be back as well. Audi has almost the same lineup as 2008, when they won the PCO, as Gonzalito Pieres and Sugar Erskine are both back playing with team owner Marc Ganzi. Mansour, ERG, Piaget, and will be hungry and looking to get a championship of their own, especially in this very special Centennial year.
The very competitive 12 goal season kicks off in two weeks, with a Mother’s Day special weekend on May 5-7 in the first weekend of the Lisle Nixon tournament. The two month season runs May and June, Antelope (Geoff Palmer, Santiago Trotz, Jason Crowder and Jared Sheldon), Palm Desert Polo (Dan Horn, Matt Walker, Henry Walker, and Luis Escobar), Earth Polo Team (Jon Benitz, Memo Gracida, Julio Gracida, TBA) are all returning teams. SBPRC also welcomes newcomer Cotterel Farms (Jenny Lutrell, Luis Saracco, Ignacio Saracco, Ruben Coscia).